It feels like it a long time coming, but on the evidence of this past weekend at the K Club, Dublin, it appears that Rory McIlroy is back to his best form. Since returning from ankle ligament damage last year something has not been sitting right with McIlroy’s game—notwithstanding the fact that he still won the Race to Dubai on the European tour last November. As McIlroy has endured his struggles, golf has seen Jason Day and Jordan Speith tussle for the number one ranking, pushing both men to produce Tiger Woods-like numbers and consistency. But when McIlroy plays like he finished the final three holes on Sunday afternoon, no one can argue that he belongs in that company.
To win one’s own country’s tournament is special, and perhaps even more so for the proudly Celtic nations like the Irish, Scots and the Welsh. To add an element of superlative, McIlroy’s own foundation was the event’s sponsor. Considering the corporate requirements and press obligations surely being exhausting leading up to the event this weekend at K Club in Dublin, we can see how special this win will be for him.
The Irish weather was not to be a bit part player in this event either, and despite what mother nature had in store, when McIlroy teed it up on Sunday with a three-stroke lead, we all wondered what was in store.
For a moment it looked like trouble was in store. As the lead slipped away and, following the second of two delays for hail stones on the Greens, McIlroy resumed on the 15th hole to soon find himself one behind new leader Russell Knox. There comes a time in sport though, when a competitor has to face down their internal demons and decide if they are to sink or swim, and the near 580-yard par 5 served as a poetic representation of the struggles that must have been entering his mind at that time. Martin Kaymer—who himself shot a 66 on the final day—when questioned after his round, emphatically declared that the 16th was unreachable in two shots and in fact the final three holes were all treacherous. Being one shot down on the verge of throwing another tournament away, you could understand the extra juice on the drive down the 16th fairway. Surely the next shot would be a mid-iron to set up a wedge to the green, as it was for the rest of the field.
Rory McIlroy is not like other golfers though. With less than perfect weather, he called for the 3-wood with the front of the green 240 yards away, staring at water in front of and down the left side of the green. He unleashed perhaps the shot of the year to land in the middle of the green. As the ball landed and the club was handed back to the caddie, you could see the McIlroy strut return. The bounce and natural rhythm that was so effortlessly displayed in his major tournament wins was back on display, and in that one shot this tournament turned on its head—and quite possibly the entire season. As if to emphasise the point, in the middle of the 18th fairway and 250 yards to the flag, McIlroy reached for the 3-wood again, this time with even more dramatic results. Landing in the heart of the green, the ball rolled up to 5ft from the flag for what would prove a tap in Eagle.
Last week, Jason Day won wire-to-wire at the Players Championship to cement the top spot, and you can be sure that those two McIlroy 3-woods were heard every bit as clearly by Day and Speith, as was experienced by the public lucky enough to be at the K Club to witness them.
European Ryder Cup captain and fellow Irishman Darren Clarke will be delighted to see that Rory McIlroy is back to his best again. Clarke would have been even happier later on Sunday night at the Byron Nelson tournament when another European stalwart, Sergio Garcia, clinched victory on the first play-off hole to draw level in terms of tournament victories with compatriot Seve Ballesteros. An emotional night all round for those on Team Europe with the Ryder Cup now only four months away.
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